Mk2 8v GTi rev counter problem

[rubjonny]

its in the maintenance + info section, in the MK2 child forum

[andydavey]

Tried disconnecting the battery for 30 secs and also cleaning the contacts on the sensor on the gearbox but to no avail. Having a few weird problems with the dash in addition to this, wondered if anyone could shed some light on them.

- Water level warning light keeps flashing, appears to be in some kind of sequence. Is this a fault code or something?
- MFA doesn't really do anything - I keep pressing the button for it, and sometimes it'll very briefly flicker onto something other than the clock, but thats it.

Have taken a video on my phone (excuse the crap quality) to explain what I mean. Also shows what the rev counter is doing.

http://www.surgeradio.co.uk/~ad/temp/dash.3gp

Any help much appreciated!

Andy

[Simon8v91]

If you have not already checked it I would look at the earthing as Rubjonny said.  The coil to valve cover earth strap has a habit of going missing / breaking.  Generally a good cleaning of all earth straps on the car is good preventative maintainance.

I wonder if anyone has removed the clocks in the past and not got it back right.  Might be worth checking the multi connector at the back of the clocks.  I am fairly sure its a connection issue somewhere.....

[andydavey]

OK, will check that out. I can't remember seeing one, AFAIK the coil just has two wires coming off it that don't seem to go anywhere near the valve cover, does anyone have any pictures of what I should be looking for? Also, I know I said I cleaned out the contacts for the sensor on the gearbox, but I think that was actually the reverse light switch. Where exactly is the sensor?

It also seems to get a lot better when the engine is warmer if that gives any clues?

Also, any ideas on the blinking coolant low light? Seems too repetitive to be just a loose connection.

[rubjonny]

the one you're looking for is a shunky braidsed earth cable it runs from a bracket bolted to one of the rocker cover studs, to one of the coil bracket bolts i.e. not the coil itself but the bracket that mounts it to the bulkhead

[Simon8v91]

Sorry mate got mixed up in my first reply  It is a while since I upset things with my MFA.  I meant connections on the coil not gearbox (which you rightly point out is the reversing light switch).  I meant for you to clean the connections from the coil with WD40.

As compensation I will take you a pic of the earth cable tonight.

Is there any sign of a water leak from the expansion tank or from the heater hoses towards the coil?

I think your flashing light will disappear when you sort either the earthing or power / connections to the clocks.  Failing this its second hand clocks time.

Dont forget to power cycle (remove dash/mfa fuse for 30secs) every time you have reconnected / cleaned something to do with the Rev counter / mfa.

Right here is the pic.



Good Luck!

[andydavey]

Cheers for the pic mate! Unfortunately (fortunately?) it's present and making good contact so that's not the problem. I'm starting to think it's just a loose connection behind the instrument cluster now, so now I've tried all the easy things it's coming out tomorrow to give all the contacts a good clean. Lost all dash illumination on the way home tonight but it then came back when I gave the top a good hard whack, so if nothing else I'll have it off to fix that...

[JimR]

Tried disconnecting the battery for 30 secs and also cleaning the contacts on the sensor on the gearbox but to no avail. Having a few weird problems with the dash in addition to this, wondered if anyone could shed some light on them.

- Water level warning light keeps flashing, appears to be in some kind of sequence. Is this a fault code or something?
- MFA doesn't really do anything - I keep pressing the button for it, and sometimes it'll very briefly flicker onto something other than the clock, but thats it.

Have taken a video on my phone (excuse the crap quality) to explain what I mean. Also shows what the rev counter is doing.

http://www.surgeradio.co.uk/~ad/temp/dash.3gp

Any help much appreciated!

Andy

Mate, your clocks are beggared, mine had these symptoms exactly, even with the mfa briefly flickering to something when button pressed, i bought a new set of clocks from the usual outlet (ebay) and it all works perfectly now, apart from my car having an extra 40k on the clocks, but i will swap in my original sppedo to sort this. By the way, if you do get a new set, try and get hold of VDO clocks instead of your (motometer, probably) clocks.

[andydavey]

Had the dash out and it does indeed look like it's new clock time, they're doing some seriously weird things now...

Would this fit ok (my speedo only goes up to 140, but I'd be swapping that bit over anyway to keep the mileage)? Most of the ones I can see on eBay are double connector ones, mine's only a single so I assume any one with a single connector will fit ok?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=008&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=180101935848&rd=1&rd=1

Anywhere else to get them apart from eBay? Would like them quite soon as I'm running out of holiday time to do things like pull my dash apart!

[rubjonny]

they'll fit & work fine as long as you have a single plug in your GTI, but since they're 16v clocks the rev counter redline is in the wrong place although the rev counter will still read correctly.  Also since you have a 140mph speedo the 160mph one will not read right, but all you have to do is swap your speedo into the replacment clocks